Friday, Jan 2, 2004
This week's report lists 91 silver stocks. There are 28 silver
stocks that list reserves,
resources (and exploration potential.) which I calculate by using my
"ounce in the ground" forumula. There are 40 explorers.
There are 23 additional "silver" stocks with incomplete information. Additions & Changes from last week are in bold. (But simple price changes are not in bold.)
If you are an Accredited or Sophisticated investor and want information
I may find out about private placement opportunities in some of the very best silver stocks in my opinion, (This is not a
solicitation for any stock, and I'm not brokering any securities) email
me with PP in the subject field: jasonhommel@yahoo.com
If you want to know which stocks I own
most of, and which I own least of... that information is in a
monthly report for paying subscribers. For a look at my personal
portfolio: I
do not issue recommendations, and I don't list number of shares or the
size of my portfolio, but I will show the top investments in my
portfolio, by rank, updated monthly.
To read about my religious bias, see my other website, bibleprophesy.org
There are two essays near the top of the page that explain why I
believe the entire world will return to using gold and silver as money
again.
If you want to receive an email notice of when and where this FREE weekly report is published, sign up at silverstockreport.com
Anyone who signs up will also get a FREE e-book that explains the
bullish case for gold and especially silver. If you have studied the silver
market at all, then the time has come that you ought to be a teacher,
and you ought to explain the silver story to all who will listen. silverstockreport.com is designed to help spread the word. I suggest you email the url to your address book.
Price of silver is $5.95 as of Friday, 2:00 PM West Coast US, which was
used to calculate the following figures. The CAN $ / US $ conversion
factor is .7763 I will use .78 for ease.
Stock Symbol / Silver oz. "in ground"** for 1 oz. silver's worth of
stock. / price change since last week relative to silver price change
(and stock dilution, if any) / additional comments (EXPT is
"exploration potential")
* = I own shares
Explorers (by market cap):
Extra Canadian/Pink Sheet symbols to add:
RRM.V RRMLF.PK
* = I own shares
** = "in ground" counts all "silver oz. in the ground" as the same, but
they are NOT EQUAL. Some are more certain and others are more
speculative. Some are higher grades, some are lower grades. They range from most certain to least certain such
as: "proven & probable reserves," "measured, indicated, inferred
resources." This single number next to each stock symbol above represents the
approximate number of ounces of silver in the ground you are buying
title to when you invest the equivalent of one ounce of silver by
buying shares in the company at current prices. (It does not
include zinc, or copper, or lead, but it does include gold at a 1:10
ratio of gold:silver.)
At goldsheetlinks.com, they add 100% of proven & probable reserves,
but only 70% of measured & indicated resources, and only 50% of
inferred resources. I don't do that. I count them as all the same.
To quickly "tab" down to the company you are interested in, note the symbol. Then hit "control-F" to "FIND" the symbol below.
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WEEKLY COMMENTARY (All new in this section):
Silver stocks were up 314% for
2003! Eighty silver
stocks on my list are up, on average, 314% for the year, from Jan 1,
2003 to Dec. 31, 2003. That number is a bit rough, because in
many cases I had to estimate the Jan 1, 2003 price by looking at a 1
year chart, and then estimating what the number was. For example
if the line on the graph was between .5 and 1, and it was a bit closer
to the 1 than the .5, then I'd estimate at something a bit over .75
accordingly.
I spoke with family members over the
holidays about the dollar and silver. I mentioned the facts in
the beginning of this article, (below) about how there are trillions of
dollars, and millions of oz. of silver available, and that if less than
1% of those dollars try to buy gold and silver, then prices of gold and
silver will go through the roof. Once this realization was
understood, they wondered how and why the fraud of printing excessive
paper money was ever allowed to start in the first place, let alone go
as far as it has. After all, they asked, "Isn't the dollar
supposed to be backed by gold?" And, "Isn't it a crime to print
up dollars with no backing?"
The answer is yes, it is a crime to debase our gold and silver coins. In fact, the crime carries the death penalty. According to the Coin Act of 1792 of the United States, those who debased the currency, "or
otherwise with a fraudulent intent," were to suffer the death penalty. It is my understanding that the Coin Act of 1792 was never repealed and remains in effect to this day. It reads:
Penalty of Death for de-basing the coins. Section 19. And be it further enacted, That if any of the gold or silver coins which shall be struck or coined at the said mint shall be debased or made worse as to the proportion of the fine gold or fine silver therein contained, or shall be of less weight or value than the same out to be pursuant to the directions of this act, through the default or with the connivance of any of the officers or persons who shall be employed at the said mint, for the purpose of profit or gain, or otherwise with a fraudulent intent, and if any of the said officers or persons shall embezzle any of the metals which shall at any time be committed to their charge for the purpose of being coined, or any of the coins which shall be struck or coined at the said mint, every such officer or person who shall commit any or either of the said offenses, shall be deemed guilty of felony, and shall suffer death.
This crime took place in 1964 after
Kennedy was assassinated. The final year we had 90% silver half
dollars, quarters and dimes was 1964. In fact, they made a 1964
Kennedy half dollar of 90% silver to commemorate his death. Soon
after, they stopped making 90% silver coins, and they debased the
coinage with 40% silver coins. Wasn't the person who ordered the
mint to make 40% silver half dollars, guilty of this felony? And
later still, they stopped using silver in the coins altogether by
1965. Was anyone ever put to death over this? If not, why
not?
Isn't it also a crime to refuse to enforce the law, and to allow frauds
and crimes like that to go unpunished? I believe God thinks so,
and I believe he will hold us accountable. "Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are
alike abomination to the LORD." (Proverbs 20:10) And God says, "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil..." ().
Everyone who has ever used a debased copper clad quarter, like we all
have been using since 1965, should be aware of this crime. This
crime cannot take place in secret. Therefore, everyone who has
ever used a debased coin is complicit in allowing this crime to
continue to take place. We are all guilty of allowing this crime
to take place right under our fingertips, because we all continue to
use the debased coins!
I can try to shift the blame to my ancestors, since I was not born
until 1970. I can say that my ancestors were lied to, ill
informed, and/or did not have the knowledge to understand the crime or moral courage prosecute it. And thus, they failed to educate me. (I had to educate myself based on reading the Bible.)
But that generation can also blame prior generations. They can
point back 31 years earlier to 1933 when the gold backing of the dollar
was changed grom $20/oz. to $35/oz.
And that generation can blame the prior generation, too. They can point back 19 years earlier to 1914 when the Federal Reserve was founded.
So, what monetary crimes are being committed today, and what is the responsibility of everyone living today to fix it?
I believe the easiest and most profitable way to fix it is to recognize
the fraud, expose the fraud, and to stop being deceived by it any longer. The
nature of the fraud is deception. Simply buy silver and silver
stocks, and advocate buying silver and silver stocks, and the fraud
built up in the system will collapse of its own weight.
Less than 1% of people of today's generation need to be educated about
the fraud, and the fraud will be just about doomed to fail. This
can be a bloodless revolution, the easiest fight ever fought.
So, why have the Churches allowed this abomination to take place? They
like to preach against homosexuality, referring to the Bible, which
calls it an "abomination". But why don't the Churches preach
against the abomination of unjust weights and measures? It's an
abomination, just the same, but where is the outrage over that?
Why aren't mothers across the land slapping their kids' hands when they
come in contact with loose change, and saying things like, "Don't touch that filthy copper
clad quarter, it's an abomination!"
Where is the moral outrage? Where is the moral courage?
I'll tell you why I think the nation has been lacking it... The
Churches have made the IRS (the agency of the Federal Reserve)
their head, instead of keeping the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible as
their head. The Churches incorporate under the non-profit 501
(c)3 status in order to be a tax exempt organization in order to
attract the donations of their more wealthy Church members. That
means the Church pays no taxes on the donations, and those who donate
can deduct the gift from their income so it becomes tax
deductible. Normally, you can donate 15% (I don't know if the
percentage has changed recently) of your income to charity, (it doesn't
have to be to a 501 (c)3) organization, and it is tax deductible. But if you donate more than 15%, anything over the 15% has to go to a non-profit 501 (c)3
in order to be a tax deductible gift. Very wealthy people already
donate 15% to their own foundations, so if they are going to donate
anything extra to anyone else, they typically will choose a non-profit 501 (c)3
in order for their gift to be tax deductible against their
incomes. (The wealthy assume it's better to give away pre-tax
money because it would be more, rather than after tax money, which
would be less.) However, a Church that is incorporated under non-profit 501 (c)3 status,
has to obey IRS rules about what can be preached from the pulpit.
For example, they cannot endorse politicians, or promote bank
runs.
Therefore, I believe the existence of 501 (c)3
Churches explains why the abomination of the fraud of debased coinage
has been allowed to continue. There is no moral outrage over the
abomination, because the majority of the nation's Churches, and most of
our so-called moral leaders are agents of, or act under the guidelines
of, the Federal Reserve.
The Churches also use guilt to get people to donate to them a "tithe"
of 10%! Sounds a lot like taxes, doesn't it? I believe
there is no moral imperative to donate money to any 501 (c)3 organization. I believe that all Churches that have become 501 (c)3
non-profit organizations have become harlot Churches, false prophets,
deceivers, and are no longer part of the real body of Christ at
all! They are harlots because they leave their first love, Jesus
(the king of kings), and instead follow the leadership of the governments of the world
(the local kings) and they do it for money. You
cannot go to heaven by donating money to a harlot Church. You
would be better off taking your tithe of 10%, and spending it on silver
bullion for yourself, and by preaching the Word of God yourself.
If you are the type to donate to a Church, then this next month, spend
your tithe on silver bullion, and tell others to do the same. If
you do this, you will be preaching the Word of God as you do so, and
thus, you will be deserving of the tithe yourself. After all, the
tithe is for the teachers.
I'm not asking anyone to tithe to me. But please consider signing up for a look at my personal portfolio for $29/month.
I believe the battle against the fraud
of unjust paper money is a spiritual battle, and is very important to
us today, since the fraud of the overvalued dollar has caused the U.S. to be
increased with goods from abroad. In fact, our trade deficit is
part of the problem that many financial commentators recognize today as
being a problem of the overvalued dollar.
People in the U.S. today think they
are rich because they have lots of paper dollars, and plenty of goods
from abroad. But people today do not realize that their paper
wealth is a fraud, and that they are, in reality, poor, because they
have no gold and no silver. People need to open up their eyes to
see the deception and reject the fraud.
It is interesting that those who sell gold and silver short in the
futures markets are said to have "naked" positions if they do not have
the metal to "cover" their positions. They certainly better buy
gold, otherwise, the shame of their nakedness will appear!
General Commentary on Silver (slightly modified from last week):
Let me say how important it is for silver stock
investors to own physical silver. There is $364 million dollars
worth of silver at the COMEX. The 59 silver stocks on my list,
for which I have information available to calculate market caps, add up
to $7090 million as of Dec. 5th, 2003. If silver stock
investors move 5% of their silver stock holding to physical silver in the next few weeks, that would be $350
million dollars worth of physical silver, and thus, the silver price
would probably hit $10-20/oz. within a few days. And if silver stock
investors try to move 20% into physical silver, the silver demand will end the
COMEX manipulation tomorrow. We don't need anyone other than
ourselves to make "the big breakout" happen at this point.
I wrote an article predicting that Silver Companies will buy silver, and urging Silver Companies
to buy silver with their cash, to use silver as money, and sell silver
as needed for expenses. See http://news.goldseek.com/GoldIsMoney/1069879327.php
That article is now having an
effect! It is being discussed by several large "cash rich" silver
companies, who are seriously considering the idea of holding their cash
in the form of silver.
All 90
silver stocks on this list, on average, were up 238% for the year, since 1-1-03. I believe that beats any
sector, and any mutual fund in the world for 2003. Anyone know of
a better sector or fund? Yet silver stocks are completely off the
radar of TV financial news coverage. The stealth bull market continues!
A great overview on silver: Douglas
Kanarowski's 78
Approaching Forces For Higher Silver Prices
Look at the summary of the world silver survey:
http://www.gfms.co.uk/Publications%20Samples/WSS03-summary.pdf
Note, there is virtually no monetary demand. Note, the 2002 mine
production (585 mil oz.) is greatly exceeded by industrial, photo, and
jewelry demand. (838 mil oz.). Note the chart on page five,
"Supply from above-ground stocks".
The difference between mine supply and industrial demand was met by a
combination of three factors: 1. Government selling, 2.
Private selling, 3. Recycling
U.S. government selling is ending, as their stocks have run out, or
will run
out. This factor will reverse, because the U.S. government will need silver to
continue their coin
program, and/or need silver when they wake up and decide they need to replenish their
strategic stockpile for domestic security. Silver is a war
material. China's selling of silver will also likely turn into buying, as China will
need silver for continued industrial development, or when they also lose
faith in the U.S. dollar.
Private selling has been rapidly shrinking and is now almost ended, and
should turn into buying, and become monetary demand. Monetary demand is
everything in the silver supply / demand situation. It's not
now. Now, it's nothing. But it will become something
incredible, because the dollar is dying.
The following is a "must read": Ted Butler's best ever explanation of how silver is manipulated lower than it should be.
http://www.investmentrarities.com/11-04-03.html
Sign the silver petition to stop the manipulation at the COMEX:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/comex/
Ted correctly points out that a lower price creates excessive demand
from consumers. However, Ted Butler does not point out, and
neglects to mention, that a perpetually low price also creates lack
of demand from investors who are "trend investors".
I think most silver experts over-analyze all the supply and demand
factors of the silver market. No factor is more important than
monetary demand. The force of photographic demand is like a light
breeze compared to the hurricane or tornado of monetary demand.
Monetary demand is everything.
To scare away investors--that is the entire reason gold and silver are
manipulated in the first place. Only the trend investors can be
deceived. The problem is that nearly everyone is a trend
investor. So few investors understand value. If people knew
the facts and used their brains, the available above-ground refined
silver would be gone by tomorrow, and the price would be well over
$20-50/oz. But don't trust me, follow the urls and check the numbers:
1,000,000,000,000: 1 Trillion dollars
1,000,000,000: 1 Billion dollars
1,000,000: 1 Million dollars
So, what do all those stastistics mean?
For a while I was using M3 and dividing that by the US gold (261
million ounces), which implies the us dollar is 84 times more valuable
than it should be, and that gold should hit $33,850/oz. after the fraud is destroyed. Today, I
realize I need to add in the Bond market, because bonds are an asset
class designed to siphon away and replace real money, which is to say,
gold. This gives a price of $111,111/oz. for gold. At
$400/oz, this implies that US bonds and paper currency is 278 times
more overvalued than gold.
Gold is overvalued relative to silver, because at current prices, it
takes 75 ounces of silver to buy 1 ounce of gold. Historically,
this ratio was 15 or 16. Given the silver shortage, this ratio
will hit 10:1 or 5:1, or even 1:1. Thus, gold is perhaps 75 times
more overvalued than silver.
Silver is overvalued relative to certain select silver stocks, perhaps by a factor of 3 or 10 or 20 to one.
Thus, if you multiply all those numbers, 278 x 75 x 20, You will
see that bonds and currency are overvalued relative to select silver
stocks by a factor of 416,666 to one. In other words, if silver stocks
reach their true value, and paper currency disappears as it always
does, then you might expect certain silver stocks to go up in relative
value by a factor of 416,666 times more than they are worth
today. By that time, you should definitely sell the silver stocks,
and buy gold.
Can silver stocks really appreciate so much? Is there historical evidence for such a crazy thing? Yes.
See http://www.sterlingmining.com/old.html
Excerpt:
"CDE rose from penny stock status (.02 in 1967) to an NYSE-listed, $60
per share stock in 1980. In fact, the average share on the Spokane
Stock Exchange rose in value nearly 16000% (yes, sixteen THOUSAND
percent), as America could not get enough of silver and silver stocks."
CDE rose by a factor of 3000, or 300,000%, and by 1980, the metals boom
was stopped short, and paper money's death was postponed. If paper
money dies a death that lasts a generation world-wide, then even
greater gains should have been expected.
For this reason, a wise silver stock investor should NEVER sell silver
stocks for paper cash. A wise silver stock investor who looks for
value would never sell a fairly valued silver stock for an overvalued
silver stock that traded for hundreds of thousands of times more value
than it should be. Likewise, there is no excuse for a silver
stock investor to have any cash or money market or bonds in his
portfolio for any reasonable length of time, except for when selling
one silver stock to raise the cash for another silver stock, or for
when you need to raise the cash to buy silver, or a private placement
in another silver stock.
So, if you want some fairly liquid alternatives to cash, in case you
don't know what other silver stocks to buy at the time, here they are:
1. Buy silver. You can hold silver in an IRA.
2. Buy CEF. Central Fund of Canada, ticker symbol
CEF. It's gold/silver bullion fund. It has 50 oz. of silver
for every 1 oz. of gold. The fund is fairly liquid, you can buy
it as easily as any other stock, and is a good cash substitute.
Unfortunately, given the current ratio, about 60% or more of the
value is in gold.
3. Buy a fairly large cap silver stock, with fairly large volume,
that is still fairly cheap on the list. SSRI is probably the best
candidate, the next might be PAAS.
----------
The sheer stupidity of big money not recognizing the value of the
world's remaining silver is utterly shocking to the rational
mind. Clearly, bond holders are utterly deceived, and totally
unaware of the situation. All my readers should understand and
know that bonds were originally invented to suck the capital and money
(gold and silver) away from the people. Bonds today are a paper
promise to repay paper. What a con game! Are bond holders
conservative and safe? No, they are fools! There is nothing
safe about holding a paper promise to receive more paper when we have
been experiencing hyperinflation for the past two and a half
years!
See my prior essay, "Inflation & Deflation During Hyperinflation"
And the fund investors who buy paper silver futures contracts instead
of real silver are a very odd bunch of fools, for they should realize
that nobody can deliver the 800+ million ounces of silver promised in
the paper contracts and options that does not exist. It's like
the paper longs are betting on the bank run happening, but they all are
making sure they get at the end of the long line. Instead, they
could go front and center, where there is an open window available
where you can go and get physical silver, and nobody is there.
Idiots! If you know a bank run is going to happen, and you are
actually willing to bet on it, then go and withdraw your money before
it is too late! Don't bet on it happening, which, if it does
happen, your contracts will be defaulted on! Amazingly blind
idiots. Wake up!
See also my prior essay, "The Moral Failures of the Paper Longs"
---------------
How bullish am I on silver? Here's an interesting way to put it: "75 times infinity" dollars per ounce.
I believe the dollar will eventually be destroyed, likely within my
lifetime, hence the "infinity" part. I believe the ratio of
silver to gold may be equal during a spike, when the market realizes
that above-ground refined silver is more rare than gold. Thus,
silver may outperform gold by a factor of 75 times better.
Currently, the ratio is 75 ounces of silver can buy one ounce of gold
or 75:1.
I may end up selling silver for gold, some at the 10:1 silver to gold
ratio, some more at 5:1, and I would sell any silver remaining at a 1:1
ratio, that we may hit during a supply/demand crunch during a paper
money collapse.
How we can tell
if silver is leading gold, or if gold is leading silver? IE,
which is going up more, faster than the other? The way you can
tell is by looking at the ratio. If the silver:gold ratio is
going up (say, from 75:1 to 80:1), then gold is moving up faster
(because it takes 5 more silver oz. to buy an oz. of gold. If the
ratio is going down (from 75:1 to 70:1), then silver is moving up
faster. So, keep an eye on the ratio.
---------------
For a list of bullion dealers:
The Silver Stock Report
For a list of Brokers that handle Canadian issues and/or pink sheets:
http://www.bibleprophesy.org/SilverStockExtra.html
To track the 130 ticker symbols of the 90 stocks on this list at yahoo:
http://www.bibleprophesy.org/SilverStockExtra.html
To learn All about Canadian law, 43-101, about reserves and resources:
http://www.bcsc.bc.ca/Publications/mineral_projects_sept03.pdf
A good website that hosts posting boards for many of the smaller canadian stocks is stockhouse.com
Click on "Bullboards".
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This is a list of primary silver stocks.
I count a company's ounces of gold as 10 oz of silver. Why? Because I
have a very strong positive bias in favor of silver over gold.
Given my bias in favor of much, much higher silver prices, then, to me,
the grades of silver are far less important than buying more oz. in the
ground. More oz. in the ground at a lower cost is the most
important consideration for me.
My method is simple. Cost per ounce in the ground. How much do you get
(silver reserve totals), and how much does it cost (market cap)? The
cost is the market cap divided by the silver reserve totals. Cheaper is
better. Buy low, sell high.
Disclaimers, Warnings, and Advice: I have gathered the information
below over the course of several months. I believe it is accurate to
the best of my ability. I may have made mistakes. I probably did. I'm
human. I have collected the information from public sources such as
company web sites and public information found at yahoo.com to get the
stock prices. This report in no way guarantees the accuracy of the
information below, since the information may change at any time. The
number of outstanding shares can change as a company engages in new
share issues to raise more capital through private placements, or if
outstanding warrants (and options) are exercised and converted into
shares, or if shares are bought back. Shares can be consolidated, or
split. The number of ounces of silver in the ground can also change, as
these are often only estimates. The number can also change up or down,
depending on drilling results.
This report is not investment advice. This report contains
information that may or may not be up to date, and may be
inaccurate. I urge you to contact the company and do your own
research to verify the information contained in this report.
This report is not an offer to buy or sell any securities. I am
not a broker. Only your broker can buy or sell securities for you.
I urge you to consult with your investment advisor to determine whether these kinds of investments are right for you.
I also caution you to be aware of your investment advisor's advice,
they are sometimes paid to push things like mutual funds, bonds and
other securities that may not be in your best interest to buy.
Some investment houses are short physical metal, and thus, they may
attempt to strongly discourage you from buying precious metal or
precious metals investments. I believe that the propaganda
machine in support of frauds such as bonds and the dollar is so strong,
that they may even believe what they say when they give bad advice to
avoid the safety and protection of precious metals. It is most
likely that they simply do not understand the precious metals market as
well as you do.
All total estimates of "ounces in the ground" can vary widely. There
are "proven and probable reserves" which are the highest category of
certainty which is obtained through many drill holes, and then at the
least accurate, there are "inferred resources" which are hardest to
estimate. Additionally, every miner always has "more silver properties
that need to be explored, which probably contain more silver". For the
purposes of this report, I have added all those numbers together. It is
believed that all these "ounce in the ground" estimates can be
profitably mined at $5-6 per ounce silver, or lower. Thus, I believe
that when silver trades for $15/oz. or above, that all of these ounces
can be mined at a substantial profit.
I may be wrong. (I probably make mistakes in every article, and there
have been updates and corrections made each week, especially as prices
change.)
Mining is a risky business. You need to be willing to sustain a total
loss of your investment for various unforeseen accidents. Silver stock
companies can do stupid things to shareholders such as take on debt, or
issue more stock at too low prices which reduces the percentage of the
company you may own (dilution). Yet, they need to issue shares to raise
capital for drilling, and then an even bigger dilution to build a
working mine. They may sell YOUR silver too cheaply, or worse, hedge
the price of YOUR silver just as it begins to go up if they lock in a
price which then proves to be too low if the dollar is destroyed.
Mining is a risky business as estimates of assets in the ground can
change. There is political risk and environmental risk. They can't
franchise the business, are stuck in one location, are subject to
government confiscation, or taxes, or union wage negotiations, and
corporate looting.
Do your own research. Be responsible for your own investment
decisions. Again, please, before investing in a mining company,
call up the company, and speak either with the CEO or the Investor
Relations contact person.
So, at the very least, check the company web site, read the annual
reports, check my numbers, check my math, and email the company. That's
what they are there for, to answer your questions, and to speak about
the opportunity of the company. Don't trust everything you read over
the internet. I am a biased source. I own silver mining stocks. And I'm
not a broker, nor an investment advisor. I'm just a private investor
trying to make sense of this crazy world, and sharing my information
and thoughts on silver companies.
Surely, there are scammers in the mining industry in the past, and
there will be scammers in the future. Remember the fraud of
Bre-X. The new 43-101 compliance laws put in place after Bre-X
will not prevent a "certified" geologist from lying if he feels lying
will create a better payoff. The Bible warns, "trust no man", yet
at the same time advises us to "cast our bread upon the waters", and to
not issue "false allegations" against others. Physical gold and
silver provide the "payment in full" as long as the coins or bars
themselves are genuine and not fake.
This report may be copied, and transmitted by other people, and may become outdated by the time it reaches you.
I can't tell you how you should invest your money, of course. The
reason is that I don't know how convinced you are of the silver bull
market, nor do I know how soon you will be needing the money back, so I
don't know how long you can wait to see results, nor do I know how much
liquidity you need. Nor do I know the size of the money you have to
invest. It is very hard to invest large quantities of money in a small
market cap stock.
That being said, my investment strategy seems to be working for me, so
far. And so, here is how I have valued the following silver companies
to make my own investment decisions.
(Market cap is always converted to US dollars and denominated in US
dollars because I divide by ounces of silver, which are also
denominated in dollars)
(These first three companies, BHP, GMBXF.PK, and BVN produce a
lot of silver, but are way to expensive to buy for the silver exposure
for your portfolio.)
BHP Billiton Ltd (BHP)
http://www.bhpbilliton.com/
--'produces 40 mil oz. silver annually from one mine'
Additional comments: unfortunately, BHP has a 49 Billion market
cap, so we can't buy BHP for the "silver exposure". IE, $49
Billion / oh, say, 1000 million?????= $49/oz.
Dear BHP: By all means, keep mining the silver if you
want the silver exposure, and want to be in the silver business.
But don't sell the silver. Keep it. Let the profits of your
entire company accrue as an increasing physical supply of physical
silver. In fact, do as Buffett did, and buy more silver if you
can. It would be infinitely easier for you to buy silver from
yourself than it would be to buy 40 million ounces of silver from the
COMEX, which, today, might be impossible.
Grupo Mexico SA de CV (GMBXF.PK)
http://www.gmexico.com/indexi.html
"Grupo Mexico ranks as the world's third largest copper producer,
fourth largest producer of silver and fifth largest producer of zinc."
Compania de Minas Buenaventura SA (BVN)
Minas Buenaventura
NYSE:BVN
- Peru´s largest publicly traded precious metals company
--produces over 10Moz of silver per year
--looks way too expensive for the silver alone: 3.6 Billion market cap.
--------------
HL
http://hecla-mining.com/
hmc-info@hecla-mining.com (208) 769-4100
110 mil shares
@ $8.48 share
$937 million Market Cap (MC)
near zero debt, cash: $125 mil (Nov. 2003)
(est. 2003 production 9 mil oz. silver)
(the La Camorra gold mine, 412,000 oz gold.) ... (x 350/5 = 28 mil silver equivalent oz.)
San Sebastian silver mine, (proven & probably reserves) 8.7 mil (produced 3 mil)
the Greens Creek silver mine (proven & probably reserves) 31 mil (produced 3 mil)
the Lucky Friday mine (proven & probably reserves) 14 mil. (produced 2 mil)
Total silver = 53.7 million oz.
Plus 412,000 oz. gold x 10 = 4.1 mil oz silver equiv.
Total silver equiv. reserves = 57.8 mil oz.
(Since my method values silver in the ground as a key asset, I should
also value the cash as a "silver asset" which will be "marked to
market" if silver goes up, and cash goes down. If HL is smart,
they should be able to turn the cash into increased "silver exposure"
either through buying silver properties, silver equities, or physical
silver.)
($125 million cash /5.95/oz = 21 mil "silver equiv" oz.)
21 + 53.7 = 75.6
$937 mil MC / 74.7 mil "oz." = $12.54/oz.
You get "approx" .47 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: HL has been
holding large amounts of cash. The "silver value" of that cash
has been declining rapidly as silver prices move up. They have
lost several million ounces worth of silver by holding dollars, instead
of silver. A silver miner has more reason to hold their money in the
form of silver than any other corporate entity.
Yes, it's easy to be right "in hindsight". But I'm not calling this from hindsight. I had the foresight to call it right, and time has proven me correct. 16 weeks ago, in my very first silver report, I wrote:
Today, HL still holds all that 113
million in cash, and even more: they are up to 125 million in
cash. They should have been holding it in the form of silver
bullion. The difference at today's prices is $5.95 - $5.25 =
$.70. $.70/$5.25 = 13%. 16 weeks ago, they could have
bought 21.5 million oz. of silver for their $113 million in cash.
Today, they can only buy 19 million oz. worth of silver for $113
million. Therefore, they have LOST 21.5 mil - 19 mil = 2.5
million oz. equivalent worth of silver by holding dollars instead of
silver bullion. At $5.95/oz., that mistake is worth $14.87
million dollars!
HL has more oz. than listed in the "proven &
probable" category used in this calculation. Vein mining makes reserve
calculations difficult, and HL has rarely had more than about a 3-4
year picture of reserves ahead of them in 100 years of production.
I have been counting their papar cash as if it could be silver, but it
still does not help boost their valuation much. They are still
the most expensive company on the list. But if HL bought 22 mil oz.
of physical silver, they might break the back of the silver market, and
significantly boost their own profitability.
Another way to check the value of HL is too look at profit, since they
are active miners. They mine 9 million ounces of silver a year. What's
the profit on that today? Very little. I think they had a loss in
the 3rd quarter. Total "cash costs" are $3.68/oz. (It's that low because that figure
includes gold credits!) Profit at $5.95/oz.
is $2.27/oz x 9 mil oz.
annual production = $20.43 million annual profit. That gives a PE of 46.
That's a very high P/E, which means HL is very expensive.
Why does HL hold $125 million dollars worth of cash at the beginning of
a bull market in silver? It makes no sense to me. Cash is
trash in inflation. They should be buying physical silver, or,
use that cash to buy other silver resources in the ground, like the
undervalued silver stocks.
OK, here's another way to get a "guesstimate" of HL's reserves. I
will assume they have enough silver to last another 20 years of
mining. That's a fair enough time for a mine plan I
suppose. I suppose they could run out of silver sooner, or
later. They produce 9 mil oz. in a year. 9 mil oz. x 20
years = 180 mil oz.
$937 mil MC / 180 mil oz. = $5.2/oz. HL is still expensive, no matter how I run the numbers.
And in 3 months, nobody has been able to rationally justify this high
valuation to me, nobody from the company, and not a single email from
any investor. I believe that this stock trades on market
perception, reputation, and momentum. As for me, I'm not buying
such intangibles. I'm buying silver in the ground, real assets, or
exploration potential.
CDE
http://www.coeur.com
coeurir@coeur.com (208) 769-8155 or (800) 624-2824
210 mil shares (Issued 32 mil new shares late Oct. 2003)
@ share price $5.90
$1239 mil MC
cash $38 mil (I think this is outdated cash figure)
San Bartolome (Bolivia) reserves 146 mil silver
Silver Valley Silver reserves 32 mil silver
Rochester reserves 43 mil silver
Cerro Bayo reserves 3.7 mil silver
Total: 224.7 mil silver
(to Produce 14.6 mil oz. silver in 2003)
$1239 mil MC / 224.7 mil oz = $5.51/oz.
You get "approx" 1.08 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: CDE announded
their intention to try and raise $150 million in the capital markets by
issuing shares.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031211/sfth014_1.html
CDE
continued to lose money in third quarter 2003, a loss of 10
cents/share, and they realized low prices for silver sales,
$4.77. I believe they have hedged their gold production at low
prices.
Again, their listing of ounces is in the "reserves" category (more
certain) not the "resources" category, which is less certain.
They probably have "resources" but like HL and Industrias Penoles, they
give no estimates.
CDE and HL moved up in price significantly for the 3rd week in a row. Most likely
due to new investors who know very little about how overpriced these
two NYSE listed stocks really are, but all they may feel is that
"silver stocks will outperform silver". But I don't think there
is any reason for CDE and HL to continue to outperform silver from this
point at today's stock prices. The johnny-come-latelies who bought these stocks
last week will get some benefit, but not as much as if they had done
their homework, or bought physical silver, in my opinion.
Another idea I've had is that if CDE and HL are the most expensive
silver stocks, and if they are flying, then that means that there is
serious new money coming into the silver market sector. This is
very bullish overall for the rest of the shares in my opinion.
New money entering the silver sector is a sign we need to see if silver
is going to have monetary demand for silver, which will really make the
silver sector begin to run.
Now, if we can only get CDE and HL investors to get those two companies
to buy physical silver, we will really see the beginning of a bull run
in silver. (In other words, the silver bull has barely even
started compared to where we are headed, in my opinion.)
IPOAF.PK
http://www.penoles.com.mx
397.5 mil shares outstanding (2002 annual unchanged since 2001)
@ $5.00/share
$1,987 mil MC
419 proven and probable reserves of silver (from 2002 annual report on website)
$1,987 mil MC / 419 oz. silver = $4.74/oz.
You get "approx" 1.25 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: Industrias Penoles is the world's top
producer of refined silver. They actually derrive more revenue
from silver than any other source. But they lost money in
2002.
78.5 million oz. silver refined by the metals division in 2002, and 1 mil oz. gold.
They probably refine almost all the silver that comes out of Mexico.
They probably produce about 34 mil oz. of silver from their mines annually, and they have expansion plans.
I think Industrias Penoles should stop mining silver if they are doing
it at a loss. Basic econ 101, right? Don't engage in
uneconomical activity. Perhaps they have a small gain this year
with improved prices? Regardless, they should realize that silver
in the ground is an asset, and also that silver in the hand is an
asset. If they do make a profit, I hope they decide to keep the
form of their profits in silver, or at least, pay out a dividend in
silver.
I've heard this stock is tightly held, most is family owned.
Their oz. numbers are "proven & probable reserves", which is much
more certain than most of the others which are mostly "inferred and
indicated resources." They undoubtedly have "inferred and
indicated resources" in addition to the "proven & probable
reserves," I just could not find any info on that at the website or in
the annual report.
ECU.V ECUXF.PK
http://www.ecu.qc.ca/indexen.html
ecu@ecu.qc.ca (819) 797-1210
fully diluted shares = 103.3 million (6 January 2003)
@ Share price .275 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = .21
$22 mil MC
http://www.ecu.qc.ca/reservesen.html
See the url above for the numbers from the company's website, which are:
Proven & Probable & Possible: 7.6 mil oz silver, 93,000 gold. =
8.5 million "silver equiv" using my method of counting gold as 10:1
"Potential" total: 21.2 mil oz silver, 221,000 oz. gold.
According to my valuation method, that's 2.2 mil oz. of "silver equiv"
for the gold, plus the 21.2 mil oz. silver, for a total of 23.4 mil oz.
$22 mil MC / 8.5 mil oz. silver equiv. = $2.60/oz.
$22 mil MC / 23.4 mil oz. silver equiv. = $.95/oz. --exploration potential
You get "approx" 2.3 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Exploration potential: 6.3
See also regarding ECU's exploration potential: http://www.ecu.qc.ca/indexen.html
Additional comments: ECU recently recovered title to properties that
were in dispute. See: http://tinyurl.com/x691
GRS GAM.TO
http://www.gammonlake.com/
gammonl@sprint.ca (902) 468-0614
fully diluted 52 mil shares
@ share price $4.95
$257 mil MC
http://www.gammonlake.com/Sharholder_message.htm
"With the drilling of over 179 holes totalling over 33,700-metres, the
resource calculation contains 761,000 gold ounces and 38.2-million
silver ounces in the measured and indicated categories and a further
925,000 gold ounces and approximately 45-million silver ounces in the
inferred category."
Total gold: 1.7 mil oz. x 10 = 17 mil silver equiv.
Total silver: 83 mil oz.
Total silver equiv = 100 mil oz.
$257 mil MC / 100 mil oz. = $2.57/oz.
You get "approx" 2.3 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: At current prices of a 70:1 silver:gold
ratio, about 58% of the company is in gold, 41% silver. Gold
equiv oz. is about 3 mil oz. total. Cash cost is $85/oz.
Life of mine is 7 years. At $385 gold, should produce $900 mil
oz. profit over the life of the mine. Not bad for the current $182 MIL
MC... even though the "silver in the ground" cost is currently
high. Therefore, my valuation method undercounts the gold
componant, and undercounts current producers. But that is
intended, however, because I believe silver has over 7 times the
potential as gold. My comparison method does not say that the
companies that cost more can't bring a reasonable profit to the
shareholder. My comparison method does tend to say that the
profits will be higher for the silver companies that cost less.
There's just not a lot of silver exposure here for the price. But
with the high grades, and "gold bonus" the risk is lower, and the
profits should be here for those who want more safety in a stock pick.
And they are "rapidly expanding" resources & reserves with round-the-clock drilling of 4 rigs.
MAI.V MNEAF.OB
http://minandes.com/
ircanada@minandes.com (604) 689-7017
73 mil fully diluted as of Nov. 2003
@ share $.55 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = $.43 US
$31 mil MC
To raise $6.6 mil in recent financing.
owns 49% of the resource: "55 mil silver equiv. oz. resource" back in
2001. AT 60:1 silver:gold when gold was about $300/oz., about
half/half silver and gold.
Estimated: 27.5 mil oz silver
Estimated: 27.5 mil oz. "silver equiv" of gold.
/ 6 = 4.58 mil oz. silver equiv at 10:1 ratio.
Total: 27.5 + 4.6 = 32 mil oz. silver equiv. (x .49 = 15 mil oz.)
They will be exploring for more.
2.2 km stretch, open another 2.7, plus 3 other vein systems.
significant high grade silver exploration potential. 7000 meters
of diamond drilling. Plus a copper project, billion ton ore
deposit.
$31 mil MC / 15 mil = $2.08/oz.
You get "approx" 2.8 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: About half is gold value, half was
silver value at 60:1.
SIL
http://www.apexsilver.com/
information@apexsilver.com (303) 839-5060
36.7 mil shares
@ $21.10/share
$774 mil MC
cash on hand: $40 million (Nov. 2003)
San Cristobal (Bolivia) (proven & probably reserves) 454 mil silver
(forecast capital costs for construction to total approximately $435 million)
(Produced zero silver in 2002)
7.8 billion pounds of zinc, and 2.9 billion pounds of lead
$774 mil MC / 454 mil oz = $1.70/oz.
You get "approx" 3.5 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: Apex silver primarily has institutional
investors.
This one has a lot of zinc. That's an added bonus
that is not factored in to my method of valuation. Several writers have
been saying zinc prices will be heading up soon, so that's another
bonus. Plenty of zinc is especially good if zinc is moving up in
price. And, they are not mining now, but are waiting for higher
silver prices. That's also a plus. The management also seems to
understand that silver will move upwards a lot. Another plus. Finally,
George Soros, Billionaire, owns a bit of this one, just under 10% I
read recently. That's a nother plus, in general, for the silver market
if
Billionaires are paying attention to it. There are several other
zinc / silver plays on this list that investors might also consider:
CZN.TO, EXR.V, MMGG.OB (I own all three of these.)
MFN MFL.TO
http://www.minefinders.com/
Shares Outstanding Fully Diluted 34.1 mil
@ $8.45
$288 mil MC
Cash on hand, Fully Diluted: C$34 million
"over 3.5 mil ounces of gold resource and 160 mil ounces of silver" --Dec. '03
silver conversion = 3.5 x 10 = 35 mil + 160 mil oz. silver = 195 mil oz. silver
At 70:1 ratio, 3.5 x 70 = 245 "silver equiv" of gold, and 160 mil of silver = 405.
245/405 = 61% of the mineral value is in the gold, 39% silver.
At 10:1 ratio, 35/195 = 18% of the mineral value is in the gold, 82% silver.
"In addition to the resources already drilled, Minefinders controls a strong portfolio of properties in Nevada, Arizona, and Mexico which have the potential to host new multi-million ounce discoveries over the next few years."
$288 mil MC / 195 mil oz. = $1.48/oz.
You get "approx" 4 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver.
Additional Comments: MFN also
now lists their resource figures on their website's main page. I'm
sure investors appreciate this. I do.
* CFTN.PK (I own shares)
http://www.cliftonmining.com/
clifton@cliftonmining.com 801-756-1414 (303) 642-0659 Ken Friedman
45 mil shares fully diluted (Oct. 2003)
@ $1.41/share US
$63 mil MC
http://www.cliftonmining.com/wsreview.htm --source of 100 mil oz. resources est.
http://www.cliftonmining.com/resource.htm
From: http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/subject.gsp?subjectid=13531
"A previous geologist has talked about a possible resource of 1 billion oz. of silver, and 5 million oz. of gold."
100 mil oz. silver
+500,000 oz. gold x 10 = 5 mil oz. silver equiv.
= 105 mil oz. silver.
up to 1000 mil oz. silver "exploration potential".
Clifton sold up to 50% of the project to Dumont Nickel for $5 million to be paid over time.
50% x 105 = 52.5 million oz.
50% x 1000 = 500 mil oz. "exploration potential"
$63 mil MC / 52.5 mil oz. = $1.21/oz.
You get "approx" 4.9 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver.
Exploration Potential: 46
Additional comments: Note the "exploration potential". This is
about 10 times cheaper, like 10 cents/oz, or you "might" get 51 oz. in
the ground for 1 oz. silver.
For more info on what's going on with Clifton, see http://www.dumontnickel.com, JV partner.
Clifton has 25% ownership of a biotech firm that
makes a colloidal silver. They recently released a press release that
downplayed a letter they received from a person in US Homeland security
that "approved" their product.
Clifton has a patent on a "super" colloidal silver solution made
with 10,000 volts that adds oxygen that gives it more powerful
antibacterial properties, and is safer since it uses less silver, which
would prevent "blue skin" argyria. Normal colloidal silver that
you can make at home with 30 volts works to kill bacteria by disrupting
the oxygen metabolism of the cell wall, killing bacteria with
oxygen. The market for safe antibiotics is in the multi Billions
of dollars.
I own shares of CFTN.PK.
* CZN.TO / CZICF.PK --(I own shares)
http://www.canadianzinc.com/
czn@canadianzinc.com
1-866-688-2001
67.3 mil shares fully diluted as of Dec., 2003 (as stated in the proxy, p.8)
+ 12 mil more fully diluted shares as of Dec. 22 financing.
79.3 fully diluted shares as of Dec. 30th, 2003
@ Share Price $1.34 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = $1.04 US
$82.8 mil MC
$13 million cash, CAN, no debt.
not mining ($20 mil needed to finish & start the mine) ($100 mil worth of mining infrastructure in place!)
~70 mil oz. (IN ZONE 3 only!! of 12 zones! This company seems to be
greatly under-reporting their silver reserves. Their 18 year mine plan
consists of zone 3 only, but there are 12 mineralized zones on the
property.) Really, perhaps well over 100 mil oz. silver.
$82.8 mil MC / 70 mil oz. = $1.18/oz.
You get "approx" 5 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: CZN closed
their additional financing at $1/share for $6 million dollars. The
additional shares significantly increased the market cap, and the cost
of buying the stock. The additional cash means that CZN will now be
able to drill and explore more of their property. Although the company
is now more costly to buy, it is far less risky, given that they now
have $13 million in cash.
Unless CZN converts their cash to silver bullion, I believe they stand to lose up to 20 - 40% of the value of their $13
million between now and the spring when they will first be able to
spend their newly raised money drilling, as the dollar continues to
fall, and silver continues to rise. I think they should hold their
cash in the form of silver bullion in the meantime.
CZN likely has much more silver in the
ground, and has good profit potential.
I would like the company to privide an estimate of the silver on the
rest of their properties, but their mine plan consisted only of zone 3
at the moment. The rest must remain "exploration potential" for
now.
To get the mine up and running, they might be able to pay back such
debt within 2 years, but I would hope they would avoid debt, and raise
the capital as the share price begins to approach US $2/share or more, and
do a final public offering between US $2-4/share.
I note several very, very positive things about this company.
1. This was the mining operation set up by the Hunt brothers, the major
silver investors in the silver spike to $50/oz. in 1980 who were
destroyed by their own debts and margin calls as a result of the COMEX
rule changes and silver short sale manipulation. The Hunts spent $50
million building infrastructure to get the mine running. They were 90%
complete when bankruptcy hit. The value of those buildings is now $100
million, and the mine only needs about $20 million (CAN) ($15 mil US)
to get the mine up and running. That's much cheaper than other cost
estimates of other operations.
2. The 70 million oz. of silver estimate is for zone 3 only. But there
are 12 zones on the property. The zone 3 estimate is for a 10 year mine
plan that involves mining zone 3 at current metals prices. The company
can mine, at a profit, at current silver and zinc prices.
3. High Grade ores:
12% zinc/ton; = 240 lbs. zinc/ton x 46 cents/lb. = $110/ton for the zinc.
10.1% lead/ton = 202 lbs. lead/ton x 34 cents/lb. = $69/ton for the lead.
6 oz. silver/ton x $5.95/oz. = $35/ton for the silver.
0.4% copper/ton = 8 lbs. copper/ton x 1.07 cents/lb. = $8.5/ton for the copper.
Total: $223/ton! (This price is moving up!)
4. My method of valuation: If I counted the zinc as silver,
then the price of this company would be something like four times
cheaper than it is based on my "valuation method". If I counted
the lead as silver, then this company would be about 4-5 times
cheaper.
5. Zinc and base metals prices are moving up strong. 46 cents/lb. for zinc! Check http://www.metalprices.com/ for updates.
I own shares of CZN.TO
* TM.V TUMIF.OB (TUY Frankfurt Exchange) (I own shares)
http://www.tumiresources.com
nicolaas@attglobal.net Nick Nicolaas IR (604) 657 4058
23.7 fully diluted shares (Dec. 2003)
@ share price 1.40 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = $1.09 US
$26 mil MC
20 mil oz resource up to 50 million oz. silver potential but needs to be explored and drilled.
500,000 gold resource x 10 = 5 mil oz. silver equiv.
Debt free, 2 projects in Mexico.
Raised $2.7 million Nov. 14, 2003
$26 mil MC / 25 mil oz. = 1.03 ***I'm using this number***
$26 mil MC / 50 mil oz. = .51 (exploration potential)
You get "approx" 5.7 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Exploration Potential: 11.5 (plus more after bonanza silver discovery late November.)
Additional comments: Tumi roared up 29% on Nov. 20, followed by a
27% gain on Friday Nov. 21, after the company announced a bonanza grade
silver discovery after drilling. This should significantly increase
the numbers for their "exploration potential", but no word yet on the
increase. It takes time for the geologists to estimate all of that, but investors went crazy over it immediately.
Tumi is focused on becoming a "premiere junior silver explorer."
It's good to see the focus is in the right metal. Doing active
drilling to prove up their projects and increase "resources".
Nick Nicolaas really understands the silver story, beliving silver has
much greater appreciation potential than gold.
Look at: Tinka TK.V (tumi's sister company)
A pretty big gold/copper property in Peru (Tumi owns 30% of it)...
That could mean significantly increased assets for Tumi.
I own shares of
TM.V.
KBR.V KBRRF.PK
http://www.kimberresources.com
info@kimberresources.com (604) 669-2251
28 mil shares fully diluted
@ share price $1.95 x .78 US/Cdn = US $1.51
$43 mil MC
from http://www.smartstox.com/reports/kbr.pdf
30 mil oz. silver resources indicated and inferred
540,000 oz. gold x 10 = 5.4 mil "silver equiv."
$43 mil MC / 35.4 mil oz. = $1.20/oz.
You get "approx" 5 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
PAAS
http://panamericansilver.com/
info@panamericansilver.com (604) 684 -1175
(I updated all key PAAS info this week from the company website)
58.2 mil shares fully diluted. (Sept. 2003)
http://panamericansilver.com/s/CorporateInformation.asp?ReportID=26039
@ $14.46 / share
$842 mil MC
10 silver properties (3 in production)
produced 7 mil oz. silver in 2001:
Reserves & Resources through Dec. 11th, 2003 from
http://panamericansilver.com/s/ReservesAndResources.asp?ReportID=25303
743.2 million total
$842 mil MC / 743.2 mil oz. = $1.13/oz.
You get "approx" 5.3 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional Comments: I believe PAAS is one of the only silver companies on the list today that is significantly in debt!
PAAS recently went into debt in order to ramp up production. I am
strongly biased against debt. But it's a convertible debenture, so the
debt can be converted into stock. They know and believe higher silver
prices are coming, which is great, and their strategy is to be in solid
production mode when the higher price hits. In the meantime, though,
the extra production will delay the inevitable silver boom.
I think it is extremely important to invest in a company that
understands the silver story as reported by Ted Butler, David Morgan,
and especially me, because I emphasise the potential of monetary
demand. If the company does not understand this, then they
are more prone to doing extremely stupid things like perhaps hedging
silver at $10/oz. or so, as they will see that as an "unusual spike,"
instead of the inevitible stopping point on a major rise. What if
your silver company decides to lock in silver prices at $8, and hedge
years of production to "protect the shareholders and provide exposure
to the high $8/oz. price," only to watch silver prices head past $25
and past $50/oz? Your stock could get wiped out in
bankruptcy.
WARNING: PAAS says at their website that they will hedge silver, in order to finance mine construction.
http://panamericansilver.com/s/CorporateProfile.asp
"Pan
American is loath to give away the upside on any of its silver
production, especially at current low metal prices, and will do so only
to the minimum extent required as a condition of prudent mine financing."
My opinion is that it is NEVER prudent
to go into debt, or lock in silver prices to finance a mine. If
PAAS cannot raise capital on the markets by issuing shares, then they
should not be financing new mine construction.
On July 30th, 2003, PAAS got $75 million in cash from a debenture debt financing deal.
http://tinyurl.com/yrv8
On July 30th, 2003, silver was $5.10/oz.
http://www.kitco.com/charts/historicalsilver.html
On December 30th, 2003, silver was $6.05/oz., a 95 cent increase, or an increase of 18.6%
PAAS's "working capital" (or non-working, depreciating, paper dollars)
was $92.8 million on Sept. 30, 2003. Check the link.
http://www.panamericansilver.com/i/pdf/2003_Q3.pdf
If PAAS averaged holding $92.8 million dollars from July to December 30th, then they lost the
equivalent of 18.6% on their "money", or $17.3 million dollars worth of
silver by holding dollars instead of silver bullion during that time
period. Capital spending was only $3.5 million during the third
quarter, so they did not need to use the money right away--they should
have kept it in the form of silver bullion, obviously.
FSR.TO FSLVF.PK
http://www.firstsilver.com/
info@firstsilver.com (604) 602-9973 or (888) 377-6676
37 mil shares
@ share price $1.43 Cdn x .78 US/Cdn = $1.12 US
$41 mil MC
From the Company's main page at their url:
"As at December 31, 2001, First Silver's mineable reserves were 12
million ounces of silver and inferred resources totaled 30 million
ounces of silver. The mine is developing a 1000 plus meter exploration
drift to upgrade currently identified inferred resources to mineable
ore reserves and to discover new reserves."
12 + 30 = 42 mil oz.
$41 mil MC / 42 mil oz. = $.98/oz.
You get "approx" 6.1 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: This is a high grade, producing miner.
The
high grades are a plus. They are also actively exploring,
another plus. I don't know what their profits are, if any, nor do I
know what the fully diluted share structure is.
WTZ WTC.TO
http://www.westernsilvercorp.com
(formerly western copper) --And copper prices are headed up, too, $1.07/lb. now.
info@westernsilvercorp.com Jay Oness Toll Free: 1-888-456-1112
40.1 mil fully diluted (After Dec. 16th 2003 financing)
@ share price $5.26 US
$211 mil MC
(not actively mining)
$16 million in cash in the till (4 mil + 12 mil financing)
From the "SNC Lavalin Resource Calculation" March, 2003.
Indicated 158.8 mil oz. silver
Inferred 54.6 mil oz. silver
Total 213.4 oz. silver.
Total 1.94 oz. gold x 10 (at 10:1) = 19.4 silver equiv.
Got $3 mil CAN cash, no debt.
The capital cost to get the mine going is estimated to be US $148 million
Penasquito silver/gold. 213 mil oz silver. just over 2 mil oz. gold. from Chile/Colrado zone.
Brechia zone will double the numbers, and infilling inferred to
indicated: probably in Jan will have 500 mil oz. silver, 5 mil oz gold.
Exploration potential: 500 mil oz. silver, 5 mil oz. gold, from
http://www.mips1.net/mgn03.nsf/UNID/SBAY-5SUBN6
Two other zones that could each duplicate the success of each of the
other two. So up to a Billion... oz. of silver as "exploration
potential"!
Feasibility: 2006-7 production timeline.
$211 mil MC / 233 oz. = $.91/oz.
$211 mil MC / 1000 oz. = $.21/oz. --exploration potential
You get "approx" 6.5 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Exploration Potential = 28
Additional comments: Note the capital cost to get the mining started: $148 million dollars.
A friendly email came in and said that WTZ also has the following other metal resources:
3.73 billion pounds of zinc
673 million pounds of copper
1.3 billion pounds of lead
ORM.V (no PK symbol yet?)
http://www.oremex.com/s/Home.asp
info@oremex.com
Fully Diluted: 24,012,928
@ share price $1.05 x .78 US/Cdn = .82
$20 mil MC
Have $5 million cash in the bank as of Dec. 2003.
holds
the right to acquire a 100% interest in six mineral properties in Mexico.
Oremex will focus on the exploration and development of the Tejamen Silver
Property and the San Lucas Silver Property.
They are hoping to explore for up to 100 mil oz. silver by drilling over the next year.
--Experienced team of geologists and managment that have put other properties into production:
Anthony R. Harvey, Chariman, has put 14 properties into production in his 40 year career.
http://www.oremex.com/s/TejamenSilver.asp?ReportID=68653
for an inferred resource of 8.4 million metric tons at a grade of 89 g/t Silver (2.86 opt) and 0.2g/t Gold (0.006 opt).
2.86 x 8.4 = 24 mil oz. silver at Tejamen (one of six properties)
$20 mil MC / 24 mil oz. = $.82/oz.
$20 mil MC / 100 mil oz. = $.20/oz. --exploration potential
You get "approx" 7.3 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Exploration Potential: 30
SSRI
http://www.silver-standard.com/
paull@silverstandard.com (604) 689-3856 or (888) 338-0046
40 mil shares (Oct. 2003)
@ share price $11.39
$476 mil MC
debt free, cash: $10 mil
not mining or producing
15 silver properties
measured and indicated resources totaling 300.4 million ounces of silver
plus inferred resources totaling 366 million ounces of silver = 666 mil oz.
2.2 mil oz. gold. Silver equiv = 22 mil oz. silver. (22+666=688 mil oz.)
$476 mil MC / 688 mil oz. = $.69/oz.
You get "approx" 8.6 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: SSRI really is the "silver standard".
SSRI has the largest market cap this far down the list, which makes it
a more attractive target for people with larger amounts of money to
invest.
SSRI continues to add to reserves, either through exploring, or through
acquisitions. This company seems to really understand the silver
story, and helped to educate me as an investor.
I attended a two hour presentation after the Gold show in SF in late
November. For the most part, their properties are very well
drilled, and they have a fairly solid idea on how much silver oz. in
the ground they have. They started their plan to acquire silver
properties and become a "silver company" in about 1993, which explains
why they have such a large market cap, and so many good properties with
so many ounces of silver. I encouraged them to acquire silver
properties and get ounces in the ground at 10-15 or even 20
cents/oz. They indicated that they felt this would 'dilute' the
value of the silver properties they acquired for 5 cents/oz in the
ground. I counted by saying new acquisitions would add
value for existing shareholders who hold or acquire the share price at
higher prices. They said they would consider this idea
further.
Some investors like SSRI because of the diversification --SSRI owns
many silver properties. I say you can get a similar kind of
diversification by owning stock in many silver companies.
MGR.V / MGRSF.PK
http://www.mexgold.com/
18.7 mil shares outstanding
@ share price $2.55 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = $1.99 US
$37 mil MC
inferred resource: 45 mil oz. silver + 1 mil oz gold.
1 mil oz. gold = + 10 mil oz. silver equiv
"The estimate does not address significant additional mineralized
structures known to be present on the property, or the potential for
large strike extensions of known high-grade zones."
$37 mil MC / 55 mil oz. = $.67/oz.
You get "approx" 8.8 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: Gammon Lake is a large shareholder,
50%. The quote above comes from Gammon's website.
http://www.gammonlake.com/corporate_profile.htm
DNI.V DMNKF.PK
http://www.dumontnickel.com
info@dumontnickel.com (416) 595-1195
56.4 mil shares outstanding
@ share price $.73 share x .78 US/Cdn = $.57
$32 mil MC
*** Dumont still needs to raise and pay several million to clifton for 50% of the project.
$32 mil MC / 52.5 million oz. = $.61/oz.
You get "approx" 9.7 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: Clifton's JV partner, doing active drilling work
right now. And recent property acquisitions.
* SRLM.PK (I own shares)
http://www.sterlingmining.com/
RDemotte@aol.com Ray DeMotte 208/676-0599
just under 10 mil shares fully diluted
@ share price $9.97
$99 mil MC
Cash on hand: $1.1 million (an increase, reflecting the increased number of shares from 7 to 9 million)
~185 mil oz. reserves + resource, Sunshine alone
Quote from: http://www.sterlingmining.com/jun112003.html
"The prior operator last estimated the mine reserves at 26.75 million
ounces of silver, 10.36 million pounds of copper and 7.05 million
pounds of lead (or approximately 28.85 million ounces of
silver-equivalent), as well as an additional resource of 159.66 million
ounces of silver. "
~100 mil oz. other properties: the 10 sq. miles around the 1/2 sq mile
of the Sunshine (rough guess--needs to be explored) even though--these extra 100 mil oz. are in the "explorer"
category. They need to be drilled and found, although I've heard
of estimates as high as 400 mil oz. total for SRLM.PK
$99 mil MC / 185 mil oz. = $.54/oz.
$99 mil MC / 500 mil oz. = $.20/oz. (exploration potential)
You get "approx" 11 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
(Exploration potential is 30. )
Additional comments: I
wrote an article on SRLM in late Dec. last week. On Monday and
Tuesday after the article came out, the volume and price were really
up. See: Sterling Mining
Ray DeMotte really, really understands the
silver story, and has been aggressively acquiring silver properties.
Sterling continues to consolidate its land position around the
Sunshine mine.
Sterling Mining acquired the Sunshine mine. Sunshine was one of the big
three: Hecla, Couer, & Sunshine. Sunshine went bankrupt. Sterling
got the property a few months ago cheap, because they were quick &
willing to pay cash. Other buyers wanted to do a full study before
making an offer. This company's share price went ballistic as a result.
But the company is still way undervalued. Just do the math, people. I
own a substantial share of SRLM.PK There were a few great articles
written lately for SRLM. See the company web site, above. The best
factors, I feel, are as follows:
1. The Sunshine mine is an existing mine that was mining at a profit.
The company went bankrupt, not the mine. So there will be no great
capital costs for start up, only minimal costs.
2. The Sunshine sits on 1/2 sq. mile, and was never fully explored.
Sterling Mining owns 10 square miles of property surrounding the
Sunshine, right in the heart of silver country, the location of CDE and
HL, the other two big companies at the top of this list.
3. The management of Sunshine understands the silver story. They are on
a mission to acquire distressed silver properties at today's cheap
prices. See also: December 14, 2003: "In light of the continued low silver price, Sterling has this year
begun holding back into inventory a portion of this year's silver coins
minted."
I own shares of SRLM.PK
CHD.V CHDSF.PK
http://www.chariotresources.com/
45 mil shares fully diluted October 2003
@ .39 x .78 US/Cdn = $.30 US
$14 mil MC
Cello Ccasa (1 project of 4) Resource Estimate - August 2002
31.4 mil oz. silver, 134,000 oz. gold. (x 10 = 1.3)
32.7 mil oz.
(Still much exploration work to do.)
$14 mil MC / 32.7 mil oz. = .42/oz.
You get "approx" 14.2 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
FAN.TO / FRLLF.PK
http://www.farallonresources.com/fan/Home.asp
(604) 684-6365 Erick Bertsch
73.8 mil shares fully diluted as of Oct 31, 2003
@ share price $.84 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = $.66 US
$48 mil MC
Exploration and development in Mexico.
See also hdgold.com (Hunter-Dickinson)
On 4 sulphide deposits out of 16, 29 mil ton grading 89 grams silver/t and 1.57 g gold/t.
Conversion: 89 grams x .0353 oz/gram = 3.14 oz.
RE: those 29 mil tons, they "anticipate increasing resources to 50 mil tonne range..."
3.14 oz. x 29 mil tons = 91 mil oz. silver
1.6 mil oz. gold x 10 = 16 mil oz "silver equiv".
Total: 107 mil oz. silver equiv.
(Exploration potential = x 1.7 = 181)
$48 mil MC / 107 mil oz. silver equiv. = $.45/oz.
$48 mil MC / 181 mil oz. silver equiv. = $.27/oz. --exploration potential
You get "approx" 13.2 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Exploration potential = 22
Additional comments:
Private placement news link:
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031031/315485_1.html
Nothing done or drilled on the property since 1999. Why
not? Because of low zinc prices: 46% of the price of the metals
was in the zinc before prices crashed... (This one reminds me of
Canadian Zinc. They think they are a zinc company.) The
largest componant today is gold, which was surprising to Eric, the IR
guy I spoke with. About 1/3 is in silver now.
At today's low metals prices:
2% x 2000 lb = 40 lbs zinc x $.42/lb = $16.8 for the zinc (.37 to .50 lb zinc.)
3.14 oz. x $5.15 = $16 for the silver.
.055421 oz. x $385/oz. = $21 for the gold
(Assuming 100% metals recovery--which is not likely to be the
case. It may range from 60% to a higher percentage, depending on
extraction methods used and the particular mineral targeted, which
constantly change with technology advancements, and price changes in
the metals. By the time a mine like this gets running, perhaps in
5 years or so, things may change to allow even greater metal recovery.)
Speaking with FAN.TO guys, they think reserves of ore could be 50 mil
tonnes OR MORE, but that they really don't know, and want to issue
conservative estimates.
HDA.V HULDRA SILVER
no website
Phone: Magnus 1 (604) 261-6040
6.924 million shares out (fully diluted)
@ .60/share x .78 US/Cdn = .47
$3.2 mil MC
no debt
HDA's proven and probable reserves stand at 161,000 tons of
ore grading an average 25.6 ounces per ton silver, and 10 percent combined
lead/zinc -- 4.12 mil oz silver, not including the zinc & lead.
According to Magnus, the indicated and inferred reserves total about 180,000
tons at about the same grading -- in other words, a further 4 million ounces of
silver.
~8 mil oz. silver
$3.2 mil MC / 8 mil oz. silver = .41/oz.
You get "approx" 14.7 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: There is a significant lead/zinc
bonus. "The property could be put into production at a capital
cost of CAN $3.5 million -- with payback of capital (when equity
financed) within two years."
ADB.V ADBRF.PK
http://www.admiralbay.com/
info@admiralbay.com
604 628 5642 -- Curt Huber-- Business Development
31.4 mil shares to possibly be fully dilluted. as of Oct 17, 2003
@ share price $1.41 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = $1.10 US
$35 mil MC
They have $6 million cash.
--owns an option to earn 70% interest in "Miera San Jorge's Monte del Favor property in Mexico"
"An historical resource estimate based on underground sampling at Monte
Del Favor is reported at 17 million tonnes grading 0.85 g/t gold and
224 g/t silver for a contained 123 million ounces of silver and 460,000
ounces of gold." "While this resource estimate is not fully 43-101
compliant, the Company considers that it provides a conceptual
indication of the potential of the property."
460,000 x 10 = 4.6 mil "silver equiv".
127.6 mil oz. x 70% interest = 89.3 mil oz.
$35 mil MC / 89.3 mil oz. = $.39/oz.
You get "approx" 15.4 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: Prior grades hit 2-5 kilos silver/ ton.
(2000-5000g/ton. 70-176 oz. ton) Very high grades. The
project was never properly drilled with modern methods.
Admiral Bay acquired this option to own a 70% interest in this silver
property in June, 2003, and the acquisition did not impact their stock
price at that time at all. Previously, they were a gas company,
and they still have this other gas project, which may be more than half
the intrinsic value of the company according to Curt Huber, who
understands the silver story as expressed by Ted Butler and David
Morgan.
My valuation method, obviously, does not give any
value for their gas project, which therefore needs to be factored in as
a significant "bonus". The company will probably split up the two
projects into two companies, so existing shareholders will have shares
of each.
They are actively digging, drilling, and releasing results in press releases.
* EXR.V / EXPTF.PK (I own shares)
http://www.expatriateresources.com/
info@expatriateresources.com 1-877-682-5474
Dr. Harlan D. Meade, President and CEO
82 mil shares fully dulted. (Dec, 2003)
@ share price .39 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = $.30
$215 mil MC
$1.2 mil CAN capital in the til no debt.
Mostly a base metals company: Zinc. Also has some silver & gold.
Total metal content of the six projects with resources... "Using
current metal prices, the gross metal value of Expatriate's interest in
the base metals in the properties is approximately US$1.56 billion as
compared to US$540 million for its share of the silver and gold."
Metal: Expatriate share of the project:
Zinc 2.67 billion lbs.
Copper 385 million lbs.
Lead 202 million lbs.
Silver 63.1 million oz.
Gold 426,700 million oz.
Gold x 10 = 4.3 mil "silver equiv".
$25 mil MC / 67.4 oz. silver = $.37
You get "approx" 16 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: Significant zinc bonus, about 3 times the
silver value. Smelter credits are estimated at about 60% zinc,
25% silver, 10% gold and copper, and the rest, other minerals. My
method of valuation puts a value on the silver only, not the rest, so
this is a better value than my number shows.
I own shares of EXR.V.
* SVL.V / STVZF.PK (I own shares)
http://www.silvercrestmines.com/
info@silvercrestmines.com (604) 691-1730
24.2 fully diluted Nov. 21, 2003
(pub float: 8.93 mil, the rest is owned by insiders)
@ share price $1.19 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = $.93 US
$22 mil MC
Indicated resources of silver 30 mil oz. (SOZ.)
Projects in Honduras. BUT...
*** discovery adds silver*** (perhaps 40-100 mil oz.) see below
http://biz.yahoo.com/ccn/030902/e028426ecfc575e72750ed7fbd6ab220_1.html
new silver totals are projected to be: 70 - 130 mil oz.
$22 mil MC / 70 = $.32/oz.
$22 mil MC / 130 = $.17/oz.
You get "approx" 18.6 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
(Exploration potential = 35 oz.)
Additional comments: These additional ounces, beyoned the 30 mil
oz. are "exploration potential", and are not 43-101 compliant.
Plus, their reserves are potentially "open pitable" which reduces
costs. They will be acquiring more silver properties with the money
raised in the late November 2003 private placement, which I think is an outstanding way to spend the money.
I own shaers of SVL.V
ASM.V / ASGMF.PK
http://www.avino.com/
shares@avino.com 604 682-3701 -- David Wolfin
10.9 mil shares fully diluted, Nov. 2003 (with the 4 mil new shares from PP)
(proposed PP in late Oct 2 mil units at $1.27 (unit = 1 share + 1 warrant at 1.58)
@ share price $1.80 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = $1.39 US
$15 mil MC
from: http://www.avino.com/other/goldstock100197.html --in 1997
"How Much Silver Does Avino Have?"
"Operations at Avino's silver mine in Mexico are both open-pit and
underground. I examined the reserves and interpolated the tonnage into
silver ounces as follows: 28-million ounces proven; 50-million ounces
probable and 27 million ounces possible." (Not all are 43101 compliant
reserves & resources.--that is an old, third party report.)
--focus is on being silver company. A plus.
They actually have over five silver properties/projects. I'm only have numbers to count for one, the "Avino mine".
= 28 + 50 + 27 = 105
Avino owns 49% of that, or 51.5 mil oz.
-"not considered reserves under the new Canadian National Policy 43-101"
$15 mil MC / 51.5 mil oz. = $.29/oz.
You get "approx" 21 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional notes: There are 4 additional silver properties that I don't
have numbers for. Consider this a "silver bonus"!!!
Mexican mining law once stated that a controlling interest had to be
owned by Mexicans, which explains why they only have a 49%
interest. That they don't have a controlling interest is a minus.
This law has changed. The mine was operational until the mine went into
temporary closure in November 2001. So there is in place an existing
mine, with working infrastructure, which is a bonus. There is a
need for drilling in order to test the potential that was stated in the
feasibility study.
* MNMM.OB (I own shares)
http://www.minesmanagement.com/
info@minesmanagement.com (509) 838 6050 Doug Dobbs
10.1 mil shares fully diluted as of the Sept. 3 pp that closed.
@ share price $6.75
$68 mil MC
261 mil oz. silver resources. Previous drilling spent over $100 million drilling the property.
$68 mil MC / 261 mil = $.26/oz.
You get "approx" 23 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments:
Mines Management owned 10% of the rights to their
property in Montana. The other 90% owner, Noranda, simply gave up on
the property and walked away from their mining claim due to
"perpetually" low silver prices and political concerns.
That explains the rocketing share price. So, the MNMM group got
90% of the rest of the property FOR FREE!--the value of which, and the
nature of this transaction has just barely begun to be understood by
the market, given the low relative price.
Their property also has about 60% of the value (at current prices) in
copper, 2 Billion pounds of copper, and 261 mil oz. of silver.
Doing the math: 261 mil oz. silver x $5.25/oz. = $1.3 Billion. 2
Billion lbs copper x 1.07/lb. = $2.14 Billion. Total asset value: $3.4
Billion
Copper continues to move up.
It's at $1.07/lb. now, and analysts are beginning to recommend copper
plays. MNMM is both copper and silver! (Also, consider
Western Silver formerly Western Copper) Someday soon, investors
are going to rush into copper opportunities, if they are not
already. Mines Management will benefit from this.
They do not have an active working mine--which is a minus. They
will need to raise capital to get a mine going. Noranda had
several estimates for the cost to build a mine and mill, around $250
million. But it could be less depending on how economic they
decide to do things. They are working on a feasibility
study, and avoiding excessive dilution, which is a plus.
Regarding environmental concerns: Noranda had a fully approved
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that led to successful project
permitting, so environmental concerns were not a factor in their
departure in 2002.
For more on MNMM see
http://www.thebullandbear.com/bb-reporter/bbfr-archive/minesmgmt.html
I own shares of MNMM.OB.
UNCN.OB
http://www.uncn.net/
Ray Brown, 530-873-4394
70 mil shares
@ $.165 /share
$12 mil MC
Three main properties:
Bromide-- 372,000 ounces of gold?
Silver Bell--15 mil oz silver?
Deer Trail
--287,000 ounces of gold and 27 million ounces of silver... but the lease on the Deer Trail will expire June 1 2004, so they need to raise significant money.
49 mil oz. total.
$12 mil MC / 49 mil oz. = .24/oz.
You have an expiring lease on "approx" 25 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: They need $4
million to exercise their option to buy the "Deer Trail"
property. They are considering various options on how to do
that. Ray Brown has been in this business a long time,
and is excited that he's got a bunch of younger guys working on the
property now, and he's encouraged by the upward direction of the price
of precious metals.
------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------
Explorers:
Explorers deserve their own category, since they cannot be valued by my
method of looking at reserves and resources of ounces of silver in the
ground. We do not know how many oz. they might have. They are
exploring for that.
This list, although at the bottom, in
no way indicates that these companies are more highly valued than
companies listed above. It is also difficult to categorize a company as
an explorer, since all silver companies always hold more silver
properties that need to be explored.
(The order is by largest market cap first, not by "comparative value".)
III.TO IPMLF.PK
http://www.imperialmetals.com/s/Home.asp
Sabine Goetz, Investor Relations - 604.488.2657
Fully Diluted 27,735,000 with Nov. 6th 2003 Private Placement
@ share price $6.75 x .78 US/Cdn = $5.26
$146 mil MC
Additional comments: III.TO raised $10 million in the Nov. 6th private placement.
FCO.TO FCACF.PK (I own shares)
http://www.formcap.com/frhome.htm
inform@formcap.com 604-682-6229
Over 150 mil fully diluted, Dec. 2003
@ .54 x .78 US/Cdn = $.42
$63 mil MC
(Recently completed $10 million financing)
Very large cobolt property: 1-3 million tons of 0.60% cobalt equivalent
2000 lbs/ton x 0.6% = 12 lbs/ton x $17.9/lb. = $214/ton (rich ore)
Cobolt is $17.90/lb. recently, up from $9/lb. (Projected to hit $18-25/lb in 2004)
Formation Capital owns the Sunshine Silver Refinery (near Sterling Mining), worth $50 million.
Break even cost $5-6/lb cobolt.
The Idaho Cobalt Project is projected to produce 1,500 tonnes of cobalt per annum.
= 3,000,000 lbs. production x about $12/lb profit? = about $36 mil profit/year???
FCO.TO also owns a few minor silver projects.
The cobolt project needs more drilling, and with recent financing, things look bright.
(I have been reluctant to add FCO.TO because it is primarily a Cobolt
company, not silver, even though I have owned shares of FCO.TO for over
a year, but several silver bugs have been bugging me about it, so here
it is.)
I own shares of FCO.TO
* CDU.V CUEAF.PK (I own shares)
http://www.cardero.com/
Henk Van Alphen -- President (604) 408-7488
32 million shares fully diluted Dec. 11th , 2003
@ share price $2.60 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = $2.03 US
$65 mil MC
($10 million Cdn cash in the till after $5.9 mil private placement closed on Dec. 11th)
Speculated resources, or "exploration potential":
Providencia -- high grades, could have 100-250 mil oz.
Chingolo -- Will finish drilling by secnod week in November -- Henk
says, "may have 400-600 mil oz. "exploration potential" in 200-300 mil
tons of rock." They got 30-40 grams (1.23 oz.) on the first drill
hole, but hope to find 2-3 ounces silver/ton. Please note,
"exploration potential" is a non quantifiable, non-regulated,
unauthorized type of estimate. It is not 43-101 compliant.
Trading decisions should probably not be made on these kinds of shaky
estimates, which may be only hype and hope. An investor who wants
to be protected by US regulations should wait for geologists to pour
over the drill results and produce numbers that comply with 43-101
regulations, that may one day appear in a company press release.
(Also, the first time Cardero issued drilling results earlier this
year, the stock price was cut almost in half due to lower than expected
results. The stock price has since recovered.)
Nevertheless, here's how those "exploration potential" numbers work out
if you do the math:
$65 mil MC / 500 mil oz exploration potential = $.13/oz.
$65 mil MC / 850 mil oz exploration potential = $.08/oz.
Exploration potential: you might get about 46 - 78 oz. silver for one oz. silver worth of stock.
Additional comments: *** I wrote an article on Cardero in January, 2003.
See http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_03/hommel020803.html
Cardero has three properties in Argentina; actively working on
two: Chingolo and Providencia. Chingolo was just measured
as twice as large as previously thought. They are trying to prove
up these properties.
Providencia also has potentially high grades in several very large
conglomerate deposits that can be mined at a profit today. Their
property at Providencia was an active mine, but only a few
tons/day. But they hope to make a large open pit project out of
the main deposit, processing perhaps a few thousand tons/day.
High grades are very important in today's environment, especially if you can buy them cheaply.
They are also acquiring more silver properties, which is another
bonus. This is an aggressive silver company. More
properties help to alleviate the risk of an explorer.
I own shares of CDU.V
MCAJF.PK
http://www.macmin.com.au/
376 mil shares
@ share price $ .12
$45 mil MC
"Total Inferred Resource is 34.5 million ozs silver but the district is
unexplored for epithermal silver and exploration to date suggests a
district potential of 50 to 100m ozs Ag or perhaps much more."
--"Macmin is a silver focussed company" The Texas Silver Project has
in-ground resources of 44.5Moz of silver equivalent
$45 mil MC / 50 mil oz. = $.90 oz.
$45 mil MC / 100 mil oz. = $.45oz. ***using this number*** since we are counting these as explorers in this categorgy.
You might get up to 13 oz of silver for one oz silver's worth of stock
IMR.V IMXPF.OB
http://www.imaexploration.com
43.4 mil Fully Diluted shares
@ share price $1.73 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = $1.35 U.S
$58 mil MC
Additional comments: This explorer has found bonanza high grades in Argentina,
which many people consider to be an outstanding benefit, and they are
willing to pay much more for such high grades. Drilling is now underway (Nov. 26th)
TVI.TO TVIPF.PK
http://
www.tvipacific.com
Dianne (IR) Phone: (403) 265-4356
= 344 mil fully diluted Oct. 7th, 2003
@ share price $.225 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = $.18 US
$60 mil MC
"The company has a policy of not hedging or entering into forward sales contracts."
Cash flow positive. !!!
--> + 2.5 % royalty on "Rapu Rapu" that should be worth about $1 million
per year starting within 9-12 months. (a cash source for an
explorer is a big plus)
14 projects in the Philippines.
Producing a dore bar of 96% silver and 4% gold from Canatuan project with the following:
Total silver = 7.1 mil oz silver
Total gold = 182,000 oz. gold x 10 (@10:1) = 1.8 mil oz silver equiv.
Total silver equiv (Canatuan) = 8.9 mil oz.
+ they own a drilling company with 20 rigs.
+ they have a "foot in the door" in China.
+ many other promising exploration properties in the Asian Pacific.
$60 mil MC
Additional comments: This company exploded in price this week
from 16 cents to 23.5 cents when they announced that they would be
mining in China: "TVI Pacific Inc. Receives Landmark Approval for
Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE) Status From Chinese Government".
see http://tinyurl.com/vwbw
They are primarily a silver explorer. The bonus is they are a
producer, and likely are cash flow positive, which are both extremely
rare for an explorer. In fact, the other producers mostly all
lose money!
EZM.V EZMCF.PK
http://www.eurozinc.com/
Fully Diluted: 224,194,196
@ share price .29 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = $.23
$51 mil MC
Additional comments: Eurozinc does have significant silver.
CAUCF.PK
http://www.caledonresources.com/
Shares Outstanding - 180,721,142
@ .25 at Yahoo!
(Mining in China)
$45 mil MC
MAG.V MSLRF.PK
http://www.magsilver.com
28 mil fully diluted shares (Nov. 19, 2003)
@ share price $2.30 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = $1.80 US
$50 mil MC
--"MAG Silver Corporation enters the silver market as a powerful force.
MAG combines a seasoned management team with two drill-ready geological
extensions of high-grade world class producing districts. MAG controls
100% of the Juanicipio property adjacent to the Fresnillo District in
central Mexico, currently producing over 12% of the world's silver from
high grade underground vein structures."
The geologist, Peter K.M Megaw, is also working with
EXN.V, another high grade silver project. Peter's philosophy was
that it makes sense to go after very high grade silver projects that
will be profitable regardless of the silver price.
* NPG.V NVPGF.PK (I own shares)
http://www.nevadapacificgold.com/
dhottman@nevadapacificgold.com (604) 646-0188 David Hottman
= 43 mil shares fully diluted (Nov 26th, 2003 including recent PP)
@ share price $1.13 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = $.88 US
$38 mil MC
(up to $10 million cash in the til from recent PP)
Amador Canyon Silver Project: 50-250 mil tonnes
silver grades average 4 oz. sil/ ton in the deposit
= 200 to 1000 mil oz. silver????? --very speculative at this point.
Drilling needs to be done.
$38 mil MC / 200 mil oz. = $.19/oz.
$38 mil MC / 1000 mil oz. = $.038/oz.
The inverse: you "might" get 32 - 156 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver.
Additional comments: NPG.V has 10 gold
projects, and one silver-but it may be big. The Chariman, David Hottman, says
that 90% of the value of the company is in gold, NOT silver, and yet,
I'm buying this company for the silver value only, and as if the gold
componant was worth nothing. (The gold projects are a free bonus, in my
book, and help to alleviate the risk of this explorer.)
Explorer in Nevada. They do not really know
how much silver they might they have in the Amador Canyon
project. They are doing drilling this fall, 2003, as they just
did a $2.5 million private placement, and another $10 million private
placement in late November. On the website, for David
Hottman's bio, it says he was a founding member of Eldorado gold.
"During his tenure, Eldorado's market capitalization grew from Cdn $7
million in 1992 to a peak of Cdn $781 million in 1996." Please
note, exploration is risky, and costly.
Now that they are well-capitalized
with over $10 million dollars, this company will likely do very well as
they drill and prove up the deposits across all their properties.
I own shares of NPG.V
MMM.TO MMAXF.PK
http://www.mincomining.com/
investor-info@mincomining.ca 1-888-288-8288
Fully Diluted Issued & Outstanding 23,133,623
@ $2.17 x .78 US/Cdn = $1.69
$39 mil MC
Located in China
2 gold projects and 1 silver (42% owned). Explorer
$39 mil MC
* OTMN.PK (I own shares)
http://www.otmining.com/
info@otmining.com Jim Hess Tel: 514-935-2445
8 mil fully diluted.
@ $3.50/share
$28 mil MC
Montana
May have over 600 mil oz. exploration potential. (They
think their deposit may be bigger than "the richest hill on earth",
which is located near their property. Visit the url.)
$28 mil MC / 600+ mil oz. = .046/oz.
Exploration potential: you "might" get 127 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver.
I own shares of OTMN.PK
* MMGG.OB (I own shares)
http://www.metalin.com/site_map.html
208-665-2002 Merlin Bingham
14 mil shares fully diluted (Oct 23, 2003)
insiders buying on 9-10-2003 at about $1.30/share
insiders buying on 12-01-2003 at $1.66/share
@ share price $1.80 US
$25 mil MC
Additional Comments: Zinc & Silver in Mexico: Sierra Mojada. Sierra Mojada is a Silver District!
Silver: Historic production was 10 mil tons of high grade ore...
historic silver production went right "direct shiped" to the smelter,
non-milled. It contained 500-1000 grams silver/ton, or 17.65 to
35 oz. ton. This means 170-353 million ounces of historic "high grading,"
non-milled, production.
(Who knows how much silver is left?) That's the question with an explorer.
Zinc: Very high grades: 11.8% zinc. Potentially the lowest
production cost in the entire zinc industry due to new "oxide deposit"
chemical extraction process as revolutionary as "heap leaching".
Exploring for up to 4 Billion pounds zinc.
Project ownership: MMGG terminated the buy-in agreement with
Penoles, who went into default, so MMGG now owns 100% of the
project! See
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031203/35526_1.html
I believe this is very good for MMGG, since the Penoles agreement made
it more difficult to quantify the value the company. Now, it is
easier to value the
company, and the existing shareholders will own more of the project and
profits.
To compare to other silver/zinc projects:
Apex: $774 mil MC: 7.8 billion pounds of zinc, 454 mil oz silver, low grades.
Canadian Zinc: $83 mil MC: 3 billion pounds of zinc, 70++ million ounces of silver.
Metaline:
$25 mil MC: exploring for perhaps 4 billion pounds of zinc and who
knows how much silver. (170-335 mil oz. historic production)
For more, see the research works article here:
http://www.stocksontheweb.com/mmgg.htm
Did you know that some market
commentators are more bullish on zinc than on silver? Although I'm
also bullish on zinc for many of the same supply/demand fundamantals as
silver, zinc will NEVER have monetary demand, but silver will. People
will never use a pound of zinc (46 cents worth) like they will use a
silver dime from 1964 (worth 44 cents). Think of that. Silver is
NOT "too bulky" to be used as money. Zinc is. And this illustrates
the abundantly clear difference between zinc and silver--showing why
silver and gold are not "just commodities," but money.
(Merlin of MMGG.OB, and Harlan of EXR.V (friends, actually) both have
reports that will educate you on the bullish story for Zinc.)
I own shares of MMGG.OB
IAU.V ITDXF.PK
http://www.intrepidminerals.com/
scoates@intrepidminerals.com Stephen Coates, Investor Relations (416) 368-4525
41.6 fully diluted w/ Dec. 9 financing?
@ share price $.76 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = .59 US
$25 mil MC
$3.2 million cash from Dec. 9 financing.
Company's exposure is about half to gold, half to silver in several projects.
Joint Venture with BHP Billiton focused on "Cannington" style silver deposits using proprietary BHP Billiton data.
(all figures are "exploration potential")
El Salvador - 38.5 mil oz.
Argentina - 6 mil oz.
Total: 44 mil oz. silver
Total gold: ~690k oz. x 10 (10:1 ratio) = ~ 6.9 mil oz. "silver equiv"
Total: 53 mil oz. "silver equiv". (exploration potential or indicated or inferred, not reserves)
$25 mil MC / 53 mil oz. = $.46/oz.
Hopefully, you get 12.8 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver.
Additional comments: This
explorer/developer tends to focus on good grade, mineable deposits, and
form partnerships with other companies to access great information, and
expects to produce silver & gold within 2 years, by 2005.
They also took the time to contact me, after having seen this silver
report.
Since this company is about half gold and half silver, the 10:1 ratio
really cuts down the "silver equiv" numbers, so keep in mind the "gold
bonus" factor here. But it's like that with a lot of the
companies on this list, so keep that in mind, and do your own math if
you want to use the 70:1 ratio.
SML.V SMLZF.PK
http://www.stealthminerals.com
Email-Bill@McWilliam.com 604-306-0391 Bill McWilliam, Chief Executive Officer
48,197,893
(August 31-02)
@ .59 x .78 US/Cdn = .46
$22 mil MC
EXN.V EXLLF.PK
http://www.excellonresources.com
114 mil shares fully diluted (Oct 17, 2003 press release)
@ share price $.235 CAN x .78 US/Cdn = $.18 US
$21 mil MC
From http://www.smartstox.com/reports/excellon.html
indicated = 63,400 t x 2738 g/t x .0353oz./g = 6.1 mil oz. silver
inferred = 2100 t x 1,433 g/t x .0353oz./g = .1 mil oz. silver
"gross in-situ value of mineralization is $31.4 million."
EXN to own 51% of the project. Apex is the joint partner. 51% x 6.2 mil oz. = 3.16 mil oz.
(Company expects 114 mil shares fully diluted after takover of Destorbelle, needed to bring project ownership up to 51%)
$21 mil MC
Additional comments: "Excellon ...is exploring and developing"....
"a Bonanza grade Silver
deposit in Mexico." The geologist, Peter K.M Megaw, is also
working with MAG.V From J. Taylor's write up on 2002: "After
subtracting capital cost of US $1.8 million, custom milling charges and
operating costs, management believs this underground development mine
can, over the next two years, generate US $15.8 million or nearly $8
million for EXN's 51% share." The company plans to use these proceeds
to further drill and explore the property. They
believe the property may contain significantly more silver, as if
what's known is only the tail of the tiger; furthermore, they believe
they can fund exploration by mining the high-grade silver deposit that
has been partly drilled.
NBG.V NBULF.PK